Perhaps it’s because they’ve been at or around the top of the NFL for so long that we keep jumping the gun on declaring the end of the New England Patriots’ dominance.

We did it again on Sunday during a first half that saw Miami thoroughly dominate the Patriots on their own field and head to the locker room up 17-3.

We weren’t alone in counting the Patriots down and out. Their own fans booed them off the field, something that just hasn’t happened at Gillette Stadium in recent memory.

Sure, Tom Brady was playing with a throwing hand that was visibly swollen, but that was just part of the story.

New England’s defence was looking positively sieve-like as Lamar Miller and the Dolphins run game reeled off big gain after big gain.

Head coach Bill Belichick puts a cone of silence over everything that goes on behind the locker room doors in Foxboro, so it’s unlikely we’ll ever know what that halftime speech was like, which is a shame because, based on the impact it had, it was Hall of Fame material.

Brady and the offence was marginally improved in that second half but the defence that came out for the second was like Belichick had found a whole new unit during the break.

The same defence that looked so ordinary in the first half came to life in the second and won this game for the Patriots.

Defensive co-ordinator Matt Patricia basically took the chains off his front seven and said go get the quarterback. The result were six sacks, a pair of picks and a forced fumble that helped mask the fact that the Brady-led offence wasn’t exactly operating at peak efficiency.

Even when it looked like the Dolphins might have a late rally left in them, the Patriots stepped up with a huge block on a field goal attempt that took any remaining fight out of the Dolphins.

Overcoming obstacles is just something Belichick’s Patriots do. With Rob Gronkowski operating at less than 100%, and Wes Welker catching footballs for Peyton Manning, his offence is a mere shadow of the one that took the field only a year ago.

But somehow they manage to keep getting the job done.

The win improved the Pats to 6-2. Only the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos have started better in the AFC and neither of those clubs has dealt with the injuries the Patriots have, not to mention the off-season losses.

Eventually, Brady and company will come back to the pack, but that hasn’t happened yet.

Perhaps only Father Time will be able to take care of that assignment.

ONE TO WATCH

Dolphins running back Lamar Miller is definitely a guy to keep an eye on. He looked like he was on his way to a monster game against the Patriots before the wheels fell off for Miami and they went into full-time pass mode. Miller had 89 yards on 18 carries for nearly five yards a carry. That total helped him surpass his total yardage for 2012 when he played behind Reggie Bush.

With Bush in Detroit, the opportunity is now Miller’s and he can build on his career-best afternoon against the Patriots.

BRADY JUST GETS IT DONE

He threw for just 116 yards, the lowest total in a game since Brady and the Patriots went into Buffalo way back in 2009, and he put up just 115 yards passing. Brady was clearly not himself. Close-ups of his throwing hand, despite Brady’s effort to keep it hidden, showed it obviously swollen from the hit he took in last week’s game. Still, like that Buffalo game, the Patriots won by a score of 17-10, the Patriots and Brady found a way around the setback.

A LITTLE HELP HELPS

The Pats caught another one of those only-the-Pats breaks early in the fourth quarter when Brady was sacked and coughed up the ball on the Miami 37-yard line. The football gods though were smiling on the Pats as Olivier Vernon was called for an Illegal bat of the ball as he attempted to pull the loose ball back underneath him. Instead, the ball wound up back on the Miami 45, where Nate Solder recovered it for the Pats. Instead of a third and 29 at the Miami 45, the penalty gave the Pats a first down at the Miami 13. Four plays later, Steven Ridley went in to make it a 10-point New England lead.

QUICK HITS

Brady had just 11 passing yards in the first half. That’s his lowest output in a first half for Brady’s career ... Philadelphia quarterback Mike Vick didn’t make it through a half before the hamstring injury that put him on the sidelines in Week 5 put him right back there. Vick, who was doing very little to move the football, was replaced by Matt Barkley, who did equally little in relief ... Broncos tight end Julius Thomas, who has been such a big part of the high-scoring Denver offence, left the game midway through the third quarter with an ankle injury.

It was ankle injuries his first two seasons that kept Thomas from becoming a factor ... Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz left the game after he was body-slammed to the turf by a pair of Eagles defenders. He had X-rays on his neck but returned to the field and finished the game.

FALCONS NEED MIRACLE

Stick a fork in them. The Falcons are dead.
Perhaps not mathematically, but with their record dropping to 2-5 after a 27-13 loss to the Arizona Cardinals, a return to the playoffs for Atlanta would be a huge longshot right now.
Injuries have wreaked havoc with the Falcons losing both starting wideouts and starting running back Steven Jackson for the past five weeks. Jackson returned Sunday but was ineffective against the Cards, totalling just six yards on 11 carries.
Julio Jones is done for the year but Roddy White could be back as soon as next week against the Carolina Panthers.
The problem is the Panthers are getting better each week, while the Falcons are headed in the other direction.
Quarterback Matt Ryan threw four interceptions in the loss to Arizona.
Nothing is looking very good right now for the Falcons.